Harry the Thestral
by SuchaNarcissist
Summary: A baby Harry struck full on by the killing curse does not die but instead changes. Mistaken for a wild thestral Harry joins the Hogwarts herd and soon forgets life as a two legger in favour of his life as Hey the thestral. A shade arriving in the woods shakes up life in the herd as Hey aims to become the new familiar to the largest source of free food around. This is his story.


**So it turns out these plot bunnies are detrimental to my revision so here is another story yay me.**

 **Enjoy :)** **SuchaNarcissist**

 **Once upon a dark autumn night,  
I was so very far from sleep,  
I longed to walk beneath the stars,  
Into the wood so dark and deep.**

 **Darkness- Blackmore's Night**

 ** _~~#~~_**

It all happened so fast, James was tucking Harry in while Lily read downstairs. It was a rare treat when Harry wanted James instead of Lily and he had taken full advantage of that fact to get some attention. There were no premonitions, no forewarning at all, the door splintered and Lily ran to the hallway, her wand with her book on the coffee table; Voldemort barely looked at her just flicked his wand and she flew off to one side. The Dark Lord paused- she was still breathing, Severus would be pleased.

Upstairs James had heard the sounds of the one sided fight and tried to escape, the safeguards did not just keep people out- they were excellent at containing people apparently. That decided James he placed Harry in the corner and whispered "hide son, mum and dad love you so much Harry remember that" Then he turned to meet Voldemort who was taking his time, he knew there was no escape so why rush? They met on the landing, the duel was short and resulted in James being smashed into a wall so hard his neck snapped.

Voldemort merely snorted, it was pathetic how weak these people were they posed a strong wizard no problem whatsoever. It took longer than expected to find the boy, he had hidden quite cleverly inside the wall, there were a few toys and a blanket inside; for some reason he was drawn to the child, pausing to ponder the development he almost left him alive, but a voice in the back of his mind whispered 'The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches' however great his potential the boy must die he decided.

The green light approached and little Harry's eyes grew wide, and seemingly wider, it smelt nice he decided in the seconds before impact, like pine trees and Christmas. Spell met flesh and glowing eyes closed, the green light split multiple curses rebounding in every direction an unstoppable storm spelling doom for the Dark Lord.

Where a toddler had sat previously now there was a puddle of blood and odd blobs of flesh- as if a chrysalis had opened and in the centre of the mess was a small black foal, spindly with small wings it looked almost menacing with its oddly glowing eyes and the reptilian cast to the features.

When a man smelling of dog arrived later the thestral looked up from the puddle of blood it had been licking and whinnied softly. The man was horrified to see a skeletal horse standing in a pool of blood; then again it did appear as if it had eaten his godson. However the pile of black robes on the floor indicated a different fate than a thestral's stomach.

~~#~~

With the arrival of Rubeus Hagrid the baby thestral was sent off to the herd at Hogwarts and Lily was apparated to St Mungos. Sirius Black was arrested for a total of twelve days instead of twelve years, as it took that long for Lily to explain that he wasn't the secret keeper.

Two days later it was found that Frank and Alice Longbottom had died, it was presumed that the dark lord had died whilst attacking as the only survivor was young baby Neville, found with a long diagonal slash across his forehead that would never heal correctly as it was caused by very dark magic.

Whilst the wizarding world celebrated the downfall of the dark lord, Lily Potter mourned the death of her husband, her son and the betrayal of Peter Pettigrew as well as two of her best friends Frank and Alice. Left with her godson in her care she retreated to the ancient seat of house Potter to raise the chosen one. The ministry commissioned a statue of Frank and Alice to stand in the atrium of the ministry as a permanent reminder of the price that was paid for victory.

~~#~~

In Scotland Hagrid introduced the new foal to the herd, it took only minutes for them to close ranks around him, retreating deep into the forest, where for the next ten years Hey the thestral grew up into a fine stallion.

Until on September the first the Chosen One- a Nev ill and long bum- arrived. According to Hagrid, who was the thestrals main source of scholarly information, Neville had killed the dark lord when he was a foal, earning him admiration from the rest of his herd. The thestrals were unimpressed, killing a hand of the god of death, an instrument of his will was punishable by removal of wings- why would the humans revere a god killer? Hey, You and Oink the three youngest foals in the herd were the most unimpressed this dark lord sounded like lots of fun, apparently he had killed so many people in one town that the wild thestral had feasted on human flesh for nearly six months. That was impressive for a thestral after all they were the chosen steeds of reapers and the favored steed of death was half thestral.

It was decided by the elders of the herd that should the opportunity arise they would take revenge; he would make a nice snack they decided.

A month after the tall arse arrived a shade of death appeared in their forest for the first time- it was hunting unicorns. The thestrals decided to help Hey and Oink herded them towards it while You kept the spirit in place; Thestrals and unicorns may be related but they are polar opposites, one the living embodiment of good and purity the other the embodiment of hate and pestilence. The young stallions had fun, the spirit seemed appreciative of their aid.

Hey took a particular interest in the spirit the red eyes brought back memories of feasts after a hunt where the oldest thestral- Blackjack- would tell tales of Voldemort. Plus anything not afraid to kill a unicorn was worthy of attention in a thestral's book.

~~#~~

Thus so it happened that whenever the spirit appeared Hey was soon to be seen following along. The ghostly being quickly seemed to understand that the thestral wanted companionship and they had some enjoyable meals together dining on unicorn flesh and blood. The more the spirit consumed the more it became corporeal and it soon became clear that Hey was correct, the hand of death had been returned to them.

Hey decided he would become the hand's favourite steed so that he could feast on human flesh constantly.

Thus when the supposed defeater of said hand arrived in the forest looking for a wounded unicorn Hey carefully guided him towards the feeding shade; it didn't take much to entice You and Oink to join his efforts, after all if they succeeded they would be able to feast on the flesh of human younglings.

They were partially successful, the shade barely audible managed to inform them of the importance of the Dragon Boy. The three thestrals feasted on most of two limbs before a centaur interrupted their meal with Hagrid in tow. The shade was displeased but understanding- not that he was much of a shade at this point; still slightly incorporeal it was requested that they caused a major distraction the next morning- it was suggested that they should eat a student or five, after that the whole herd got involved with so many thestrals it would be a huge distraction and a delicious feast.

~~#~~

The human foals had no defense against invisible arm munchers and many of the foals were carried into the forest before the elders were even informed that they were under attack. Even then very few of the adults could aim at the thestrals and the ones that could were focusing on the ones already eating their payment instead of the ones removing a snack. As requested they left the greens alone (who would want rabbit food anyway?) obviously this went completely unnoticed by the elders but some of the foals noticed; shouting something about food with bad blood tasting better.

Hey decided to follow the boss into the building, he had gone for some stone. This had confused Hey who knew of lots of stone in the forest in all different colours, but the boss was the boss and he'd need a getaway horse wouldn't he? Hey didn't realise that several older stallions had seen him follow foals inside and presumed (correctly) that there would be more food inside.

This led to the a mass stampede inside the walls as students ran from an invisible menace, erstwhile creating enough chaos that the shade went completely unnoticed by the entirety of the school meaning that Voldemort had enough time to deduce the runic sequence used to install the stone inside the mirror and be able to reverse this allowing retrieval of the stone.

Voldemort was pleasantly surprised to find a getaway horse waiting for him, and they were able to retreat quickly through the chaos and although Hey had not had time to have a proper meal enough foals had been removed to their clearing that all involved could have a bite while the ghostly form of the Hand fiddled with the red blob. After a few hours his form suddenly solidified into a tall pale man with burning red eyes and overall quite handsome features including shoulder length black hair.

After a conference with themselves the herd of thestrals decided that it was best for their own safety if the herd followed the Hand away from Hogwarts as undoubtedly the elders of the human herd would be angry about the deaths of so many foals.

~~#~~

Voldemort had been pleasantly surprised to find a herd of helpful thestrals in the forest, they had sped his recovery up by herding unicorns for him and it appeared that one had formed some sort of familiar bond with him as it refused to leave his side, even following him into the school when he went to retrieve the stone. The thestrals were clearly a valuable resource as it was obvious from the way they had attacked on command that they understood him and were willing to take orders. They would also be good guards and transport over the coming months.

He decided to take them along with him, after all his most loyal were in Azkaban; Dementors were basically the estranged cousins of thestrals, in ancient wars dementors rode thestrals into battle against wizard kind. Hopefully their presence would allow retrieval of his most loyal and the addition of dementors to his ranks.

However he really needed a name for this thestral if it was to be his new familiar.

"So thestral, you need a name and as a Harry was once my defeat you shall be Harry my victory. Harry the thestral it is."

The resounding whinny of acceptance was unintelligible to him however to the assembled thestrals it came out as "Yes Boss, Harry the thestral of Victory reporting for duty".

~~#~~

And so began the adventures of Harry the thestral and his boss, Lord Voldemort.

 **~~#~~**

 **P. S in this Voldemort's shade is stronger therefore can separate from Quirrel for periods of time, thus is using him as a safe house while aiming to gain a body while in shade form.**

 **Also the nicknames are all to do with thestral culture as it makes sense for them to revere a mass murder as they are carnivorous and humans are destroying their habitats and stopping them eating.**

 **As an extra note Neville is the boy who lived as he survived the attack from the Lestranges when his parents didn't, as Harry was assumed dead Dumbledore figured he wasn't the boy who lived so when Neville survived- even when there was no proof it was Voldemort- it was decided he had defeated Voldemort and as all attacks then stopped he was the Chosen One.**

 **Thanks for reading SuchaNarcissist :)**


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